The little army being nearly exhausted with fatigue, the officers and men became most anxious that, instead of the minor actions and skirmishes to which they were frequently exposed, the enemy would collect all his force and give them an opportunity to fight and end their labours. On the 14th of March 1781, Lord Cornwallis received intelligence that General Green, with a force five times greater as to numbers than the British, was within ten miles. His lordship determined to attack them the day following, and put his little corps in motion at daybreak of the 15th of March. About noon, he fell in with the enemy most advantageously posted, and formed in three lines; the first, which was behind rails, kept up a most incessant fire, from four six-pounders and musquetry, upon the British troops as they advanced upon a ploughed field, which was very muddy from rain that fell the day before. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, they marched coolly to the Americans without firing a musket until within a few yards, when they halted to fire a well-directed volley and charged. Upon this, they had to encounter the enemy's second and third lines, which were attacked in the same manner and totally dispersed, leaving their four six-pounders, the only guns they had, in the field, which were bravely taken by the brigade of guards: these four six-pounders were soon after retaken by a charge from Colonel Washington's cavalry, and two of these guns were ultimately taken by Captain Saumarez, who had the command of the left wing of the regiment from the commencement of the action, after Captain Pater, who commanded the royal Welsh Fusiliers, was wounded in the early part of the engagement, and the left wing had been separated from the right wing when in pursuit of the first line of the Americans. The other two six-pounders were also taken by Colonel Tarleton's cavalry: these four guns were all the Americans brought into the field.